Generally rice available in the marketplace is in the dry state and in order to be prepared for consumption must be either hydrated (e.g., parboiled rice) or hydrated and gelatinized (e.g., ordinary long grain rice) by cooking in boiling water for at least about 12-25 minutes. This preparation of rice not only involves long cooking periods which reduces the ease of preparation and hence, the desirability of the product, but other difficulties in the preparation can result in an undesirable product. Over or under cooking, use of too little or too much water, incorrect cooking temperatures and times, etc., can result in a sticky and gummy rice product wherein the rice grains adhere to each other or wherein the texture of the rice is either too firm or too soft and mushy. Even with proper preparation some precooked rices (e.g. some instant or precooked frozen rices) generally will still exhibit undesirable characteristics (e.g. inferior texture, stickiness, etc.).
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a process for producing a rice product which involves easy and quick preparation resulting in a rice which exhibits distinct grains with a firm but tender texture, but without mushy, soft, sticky or gummy characteristics.
Another object of the invention is to provide a process for producing a rice product which possesses tolerance to preparation variations while still maintaining the desirable product characteristics.